


Keira - From Noble to Thief

by SureenInk



Series: Psion War [1]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21654685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SureenInk/pseuds/SureenInk
Summary: Keira is born unto one of the most prestigious high elven families Versumi has ever known. This is her story of how she went from being a powerful noble to a lowly thief.
Series: Psion War [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2084892





	1. Chapter 1

The age of three, the time when people begin to have access to their latent magical powers, this is a special time for many people. Accessing magic for the first time is, to many, the same as the time when a child speaks their first word or begins to crawl or walk. The first time a child looks to a toy and decides to magically float it to themselves instead of standing up to get it, or when a child sneezes only to create a small burst of flame from their mouth; these are what every parent waits for and is excited for.

But what happens when the world around you is gifted with magic, but you are not? When you reach three years of age but never begin to materialize your magical powers? At first, your family might consider you a late bloomer, but as you continue to show your lack of magical skill, your parents become afraid. For you see, those without magic are usually something else, something twisted and terrible.

I was born under the name of Eloen Elendil. Yes, that is the name of one of the Sun Elf High Houses. The Elendil family is not only one of the High Houses but they are the ones that rule over Arolland, one of the biggest sun elf cities on all of Jinosa. My father, as you may have guessed by now, was a sun elf of the House of Elendil. My mother, however, was a human.

While their union was considered problematic, House Elendil was extremely prestigious. Because of this, some believed my mother must have been something special in order for a sun elf like my father to have married her. To the humans, she was practically worshiped, to the elves, she was almost like a blight. Still, House Elendil ruled Arolland, so no one spoke against this union, at least not openly.

After a year of marriage, I was born. A little baby with the beautiful sun elven golden hair and fair skin. Despite sharing these genetic traits, my blue eyes and rounded ears were a trait I got from my mother's side. As I would discover later, I would also gain my height from my mother's side, being only as tall as an average human instead of the taller elves. However, my bust likely came from my father's side as elven women tend to be more well-endowed than humans.

But, I suppose that information may not be important as of now. After all, I was still just a baby at this time. My life was not much different from your standard sun elven upbringing in my first few years. I was cared for by a host of servants and my mother while my father spent most of his time away.

It was, as my third birthday approached, that my family grew concerned. I had displayed no magical abilities as of yet, yet many of the other children who had been born around the same time as me were already showing their abilities. My family pushed me, trying to show me how magic could be used, but I was just unable to manifest any power.

As my third birthday came and went, my family became even more concerned. As I said before, children without magic tended to become something else. Rumors began to spread around Arolland about my lack of magic and soon people were calling me "The Cursed Spawn of Unholiness". They believed the union of my parents was to blame and that I was some kind of abomination sent by the gods to curse all of Arolland for my parents' sins.

My parents tried to calm the city. They even began to parade me around and pretend I would use magic. They did all they could to squash the rumors and to make people believe I was not a horrible monster. Unfortunately, the truth of what I was would begin to make itself known around my fourth birthday.

As my fourth year grew close, I began to notice strange things around me. I could hear people talking when they weren't speaking. I could sense things around me that others seemed completely oblivious to. I could feel the emotions of those around me emanating from them. Anger was like a fire burning hot, happiness was like a soft summer breeze, jealousy was like a harsh winter gale. While I did not understand these sensations, I assumed them to be what growing up felt like.

My parents, however, noticed how I would act. In the presence of someone who might have been secretly hiding anger, I kept as far from them as possible. Yet, for people who were happy and calm, I desired to be closer and to interact with them more. Soon, though, I began to talk to people without them verbally responding to me, and I would respond to questions I knew they had without them even asking. I didn't know it at the time, but it was because I could hear them in my head.

This was when my parents realized the truth about me. I was magicless and I would always remain that way. It wasn't that I just hadn't learned, it was that I was something terrifying. I was a psion.

I remember that day clearly as it was the day my life changed. As we walked through the streets, I could hear my parents' thoughts. They were wondering what to do. They were scared and knew that to continue their lives as they had been, they would have to be rid of me. I didn't understand. What was so bad about me? What did my parents mean when they said they would need to be rid of me?

The answer came as we turned down an alley. It was a little dark due to the height of the buildings around us. We sat down at the end of the alley and my parents put on a soft, calm appearance, but I could feel the darkness in their hearts, the pain and suffering they were feeling. My mother gently held me in her arms as she sang softly, but while her voice was soft and gentle, I could feel the cold chill of fear.

My father held out a drink for me. It looked like a red juice and smelled just as sweet. Yet, I could sense something cold and dark from the cup and from my father. I refused to drink it. "But it's wildberry juice, you like that," my father spoke, but again I refused. I could feel a sensation of heat rising from my father as he became angry with each refusal.

That was when he snapped. He grabbed me by the throat. "You're going to drink it!" he shouted and lifted my head up. If I wasn't going to drink it willingly, he was going to force the poison down my throat.

"No!" I shouted.

My father flew backwards and the cup spilled across the ground. My mother gripped me tight, but I felt her grip strain and loosen. I quickly jumped to my feet and turned to look at her. She was trying to reach for me, but something was stopping her. No, not something, it was me. My fear was running rampant and keeping her hands away.

My father grabbed me again by the throat. If poison wasn't going to work, he would strangle me to death. I gasped for air. "F-Father!" I called out as I tried to pull his hands away.

"You're not my child, monster!" Father shouted.

That was it, I was a monster. Tears ran down my cheeks as I finally had enough. My eyes closed and I no longer saw anything around me. Instead, it was almost like a secondary vision. I could feel and sense everything. I knew my hands didn't move, yet I felt them lift up and wrap around my father's hands. They tore his hands away from my neck. He flung back once more as I lifted him up and tossed him aside.

"E-Eloen, please..." my mother called out. "We're doing this to save you!"

"No!" I shouted. I reached out my hand and shoved my mother back. She slammed into the wall behind her. She slumped down against the ground and I turned towards my father.

"E-Eloen..." were his final words. I reached my hands forward and touched his heart. I squeezed and he collapsed to the ground.

As I opened my eyes, I noticed I hadn't moved even an inch. My parents were both lying several feet away from me. Blood was pouring from a wound on my mother's head and my father was in a crumpled heap on the ground, his mouth full of blood.

I looked down at my hands. There was no blood on them, yet I could feel it. The blood of my parents coated my mind, my body, and my hands. I cried out as I gripped my throat in a vain attempt to strangle myself, but it was no use, my grip would loosen before I even lost consciousness.

"I'm sorry," a voice spoke and I turned around. There was a girl there behind me, only a few years older than me. She was vastly taller and her skin was dark and gray. Her eyes were like two burning orbs and her hair was as fire red as her eyes. She was dressed in a black leather jacket and pants.

"Wh-who... are you?"

"My name is Gaelira, and I'm just like you." The girl knelt down next to me. She raised one of her hands up revealing a long leather glove that covered her arm from finger to elbow. She gently slid the glove off, then held her hand out to me. I stared in confusion, but she smiled. "It's okay, take my hand, you're safe now."

I felt no ill intent in her. I slowly reached my hand out and touched her fingertips with my own. Immediately, I was taken into her mind. I saw her life, her upbringing, and her own father's attempt to kill her. I now knew who she was, and I had a sense that she knew as much about me. She gripped my hand and helped stand me to my feet.

"So I'm... a psion?" I asked. I had heard it said in Gaelira's past to describe her.

"That's right." Gaelira reached into her pouch that was around her waist and pulled out two gloves much like her own. "You'll need these. As you can see, physical touch amplifies our powers. These gloves will serve as a barrier between you and them."

"'Them'?" I asked.

"Anyone you come in contact with. Anyone you should need to touch with your hands. This will prevent your powers from accidentally reading their memories. However, to block out their thoughts will require a different technique."

"Their... thoughts..." That's what it was, that's why I felt as if I could hear the voices of other people even when they weren't speaking. I was hearing their minds, their thoughts.

"I can't make it go away, but I can help you resist it, to reduce the noise down to a whisper. Come with me, I'll train you."

I could sense the truth in her voice, and her thoughts reflected her words. She meant no ill intent towards me. I nodded. I had nowhere else to go now.

"What's your name?" Gaelira asked.

"M-my name?"

"Yeah. You do have one right?"

I looked down. No, I didn't have one, not any more.

"Well then, how about I give you one?"

I looked up suddenly. She had read that thought, hadn't she?

"I did." Gaelira smiled. "It's hard to block out when you're projecting so much. No worries, I'll teach you how to avoid that as well."

"Thank you." I gave Gaelira a bow.

"Well then, how's the name 'Keira' sound?"

I nodded and smiled. That name would work perfectly fine.

"Good. Well, then, Keira, let's go. I'll take you home."

Home, not my original home where I lived with my parents, but a new home, one where there were other psions, a place where people like me who had been broken and discarded could go. A place where I could learn to use my psionic powers properly and, maybe one day, strike vengeance on people who hurt or killed my kind. We would no longer be separate. We would no longer be weak. We were psions and we were the future of the world.


	2. Chapter 2

I was older now, about seven years of age. Gaelira and I lived in an old abandoned warehouse. We weren't the only ones, though, as Gaelira had been collecting psions even before she met me, and was still gathering them even now. There were maybe forty or fifty of us at that time. None of us knew what we could do or what we were before Gaelira had found us.

"Focus your mind," Gaelira spoke to me through my mind. "Resist me."

To the outside world, it likely looked like she and I were simply staring intently into each other's eyes, but in our own eyes, in our own minds, it was a battle.

Gaelira stood in front of me. Her form was bigger and more imposing than ever. It wasn't just that she was a goliath, specifically of fire giant descendance. Her size in my mind was the sheer strength and power she had compared to me. She stood as tall as a mountain, yet she demanded I hold her back.

I won't deny that the first few times we did these exercises, she had no trouble crushing me like a bug. But over the last three years, I had gotten stronger.

As Gaelira swung at me, I raised my hands and formed a shield in front of me. I blocked her strike, but she did not relent, she never did. She swung again and again. The test was to see how long I could hold out for. It wasn't easy, of course. Losing even the slightest bit of concentration would make my shield weaker. Still, she pounded with all her might against my shield, yet the shield held.

Several minutes passed and finally Gaelira relented. I had lasted as long as she had wanted. "Now, it is your turn," she spoke. I saw her create a shield in front of her. "Show me your strength."

I released the shield I held and it vanished. It had only been a figment of my mind, after all, so the moment I no longer thought of it, the shield ceased to exist. I looked at the mountainous shield in front of me. I knew I couldn't crack it, but that wasn't the point of this exercise. The point was for her to block against my strongest attacks. Not that any of my mental attacks would even make Gaelira flinch, though. She was the strongest of us, there was no question about that.

"Hone your mind," Gaelira spoke. "Form your strength into a weapon. You will never break my shield without one."

I had seen Gaelira do it a number of times, but I still was at a loss as to how to form a weapon with my mind. I tried to imagine a sword or a club, but that did nothing. Simply imagining it wouldn't work, I had to form it with my own psionic energy.

"Think of your past. Your parents betrayed you, tried to kill you. Harness that aggression, harness that anger. Let your mind be filled with it and use it to form a weapon."

I remembered that moment, when my father attempted to strangle me. I remembered when he tried to poison me.

"How many others have suffered like you?" Gaelira asked. "How many continue to suffer? How many die not knowing why?"

A sword was in my hand. I wasn't even sure how or why it had appeared. I simply knew it had come to answer my anger and rage. I swung hard and Gaelira chuckled. This was what she had wanted. She was teaching me to fight. Soon, she would carry this training out from our minds and into the physical realm.

"You've been taught the songs to quiet other people's minds, you've been taught how to fight and to block other psions, now it is time to learn how to use your powers." Gaelira had taken me into the market today. She was dressed today much like she normally was, a black leather jacket and pants. While it had only been three years, Gaelira was quite a bit older than me and her figure was beginning to flesh itself out. While I knew I would never get as tall or as endowed as her, I sometimes still wondered if I'd ever not feel short or small around her. As for me, I was dressed in just a simple brown tunic and pants.

"You're familiar with the marketplace, I assume?" Gaelira asked. We rarely ever spoke verbally when we were out. More commonly, we were speaking telepathically. Such was the case now.

"Yes, we do a lot here," I responded. "Especially you."

"Well, when you're as important as I am, you have to do a lot of business here." Gaelira smirked at me. Both sarcasm and pride were in her tone. I truthfully believe that she thought she was as important as she stated, but would try to play it off as sarcasm. I didn't know the extent of her work in the marketplace, though, not for years to come.

"Let's start simple, shall we?" Gaelira stated more than she actually questioned. "See that shopkeeper over there? The caninus with the fancy amphorae and paintings? Reach out your mind and snag one of the smaller items."

"Th-that's stealing, though," I responded.

"And? It's not like we have any other means of making a living. You either steal to survive, or you die."

I turned to the caninus. He was a simple man. I believed he may have been husky decent. He had black fur on most of his body, but he had some white fur on his face and tail. He dressed in a blue tunic and brown pants. I examined his shop with my eyes for a moment before I noticed a small ocarina. It was potato shaped and painted brown with a few markings around the mouthpiece.

I focused my mind on the ocarina and reached my mind's arms out towards it. As my hands reached it, I closed my hands around the ocarina. This on its own was not an easy task. You see, when you close your hands, you usually do so without even thinking. But I was a beginner and using my mind's hands was like a baby grasping for its bottle. I had to learn how to use them and how to do it without thinking about it.

Using your mind's hands can be quite a bit more difficult, however. After all, these psychic hands are not physical and so can phase through whatever you do not think about. Such was the case here as I tried to grip the ocarina. My hands passed right through the ocarina and I felt an odd sensation. I'm not sure how to explain it into terms a normal could understand, but your psychic hands have all the same feelings and sensations as your normal hands. So, passing through an object allowed you to feel every bit of the object, including all its nicks, imperfections, or smooth surfaces.

This sensation can also cause you to suddenly think on the object you are phasing through, causing your psychic hands to become solid. That is to say, they don't become physical or visible, but they become like real solid hands and can suddenly effect things. In this case, my mind had latched onto the feeling of the ocarina inside my hand and as I tried to raise my hands to remove them from the ocarina, the ocarina rose.

"Calm down, it's okay," Gaelira spoke. "Just set it down gently and relax your mind."

I lowered my hand down to set the ocarina down, but my mind did not relax. The hand remained solid and bumped an amphora. The amphora began to tip and I quickly reached out to try and keep the amphora from falling. My mind pushed too hard, though, and the amphora flew across the caninus' stall and smashed on the wall behind him.

"What was that?" the caninus questioned as he quickly turned around. "What has happened to my amphora?" The caninus bent down to try to pick up the shattered pieces of pottery and I quickly pulled my hands back. The ocarina remained in my mind's hands, however, and flew towards us. Gaelira quickly stopped it with her own psychic hand. She quickly pocketed the ocarina before anyone noticed what had happened.

"Maybe we should practice more back at home before we try more field practice," Gaelira spoke up. She patted me on the head. "Still, you did manage to manipulate some things with your powers."

"Yeah, but I failed..." I sighed.

Gaelira chuckled. "Actually, you did better than I did my first time." She grinned. "You'll get it eventually, trust me."

I nodded. "Alright."

Training with my powers continued from there. Every day, Gaelira would have me practice blocking someone that was assaulting my mind and then trading off and trying to assault them while they blocked. As the next two years went by, Gaelira collected more psions to our cause. Our numbers had nearly doubled now. We were becoming a powerful force in town. When we had trained enough to convince Gaelira we could do some good, we started to head off on missions.

They started simple and innocent enough. We'd go around and steal a bit of food or money from the various shopkeepers. But soon we started performing bigger and more dangerous heists. Instead of stealing a little from an unwary shopkeeper, we began to steal directly from the town's citizens. We'd use our powers to snatch up their coin purses or even items they were in the middle of purchasing. With the right psychic skill set, you could make a person completely forget they were even holding something and take it right from their hands.

This was one of the most important skills Gaelira taught us, the ability to create memory blocks. This skill could effectively render a person or object invisible by simply blocking a person's memory of said object. Effectively, you could walk into a bank and the owner could be looking right at you and not even see you. You could then rob them blind and they'd not even know it happened until the block was gone and they suddenly realized they had been robbed.

This was a system we began to use so we could walk up to a shopkeeper and steal directly from them in bright sunlight without them knowing. It wasn't long before we began to run lesser shopkeepers out of business by simply stealing their goods right out from under them. A good example of this is when I stole from that caninus I had mentioned before. I stole every one of his precious pieces of pottery and he never once saw me.

But where do the items we stole go? After all, it's not as if we could just sell them to the shops we stole them from. No, Gaelira would take the items and give them to a creature she called "Bruno". The average person never saw Bruno themselves as only Gaelira and a few others she trusted were allowed to see him. I was one of those people, though, and I couldn't even tell you what he was.

Bruno reminded me of a crossbreed of a minotaur, a rat, a cat, and a squid all at once. I just knew that Bruno would take our goods, mark them for resale, and then sell them. Where did he sell them? The Black Market, of course, the same place almost every thief would sell their junk.

Now, if you thought stealing and running entire shops out of business was bad enough. Within a couple more years, when I was about 12 I think, we had become a full-fledged thieves' guild. We were now hiring common thieves to join our ranks and break into people's houses. Of course, we'd only make them think they were the ones doing the stealing. Sure, we'd let them take a few things here or there, but anything worth any real amount of money was pilfered right from the hands of the thieves and their memories blocked or erased so they wouldn't remember.

Stealing from the shopkeepers had already bothered me enough, but when it came this far, I knew I couldn't stick around. Gaelira had truly become the Chief Thief of the town and she was going to continue to make the guild bigger and stronger. It wasn't just about helping psions anymore. It was about helping ourselves.

I confronted Gaelira about it.

That was probably the biggest mistake I had ever made.

"What do you mean you 'want out'?" Gaelira growled. I was sixteen at the time.

"We're literally hurting people, Gaelira," I responded. "We've driven off shopkeepers, caused people to lose their homes, and we're stealing from our own people."

"We're thieves, so what? Thieves have no honor, you know that."

"I don't care, this has to stop!"

I felt my body lock up. Gaelira had never used her full psychic power on me during any of our exercises or tests. The amount of power she was using on me now was unlike anything I had ever felt before.

"I am trying to help our people!" Gaelira shouted as she stepped up to me. "We, the psions, get the majority of the money in this guild. You know why? Because we deserve it! Because one day, we're not going to be able to sit here and pretend we're normal. Our people are out there dying because of people like your parents who think that psions are some kind of evil, eldritch monsters!"

Gaelira released me and I dropped to my hands and knees.

"It's still not right." I stood to my feet. "We can't keep hurting people like this."

"You think I want to?" Gaelira balled her fists. "There is a war coming, Keira; a war between us and the normals. When that war comes, we will have to fight or die. If we cannot afford to house our brothers and sisters, to feed them and care for them, then how will we survive when that day comes?"

"Gaelira, please... I understand your concern, but this isn't the way."

Gaelira's face grew dark. "You are either with us or you are against us. Make your choice."

"I can't, Gaelira..."

"Then I will make the choice for you."

The world suddenly went dark and I felt as if I was going to collapse. My entire body began to hurt suddenly and I screamed out in pain. That was when I awoke in my bed. Had it all been a dream? Had I only been afraid of what I was going to say to Gaelira? I was okay, or so I thought. But as I began to dress that morning, I noticed a strange mark on my back. It was the symbol of our guild, a flaming dagger. It flashed a bright blue and I suddenly saw Gaelira in front of me.

"If you will not obey me willingly, you will obey me forcefully. You have been branded with powerful magic. Me and some of my associates refer to these as the Sapphire Bonds. Should you try to resist any command I or any of my associates give you, you will feel pain unlike anything you have ever felt. Should you resist further, these bonds can and will take full control of you, like they are now. You will do as I command willingly or I will force you to."

"And don't bother trying to find a way to remove the Bonds. Anyone who so much as tries to divine what kind of magic they are will be killed by them. You are mine, and you will do whatever I command for as long as either of us lives."

Gaelira vanished and everything returned to normal. My body now moved on its own as I found myself walking over to my desk. I took the quill from it and pulled out a piece of parchment. On it, I wrote "I am watching you." I felt the magic forcing me to move then dissipate. I could only guess Gaelira had done this to prove that she could control me.

I had no choice now. I had to do whatever she commanded, it didn't matter what it was.


	3. Chapter 3

I was nineteen now. I had now fully matured, and while I was still not as endowed as Gaelira was, my elven blood had clearly given me an ample bust. I wasn't huge by any means, but I wasn't small either. I also wasn't as innocent as I had been either.

It started just a few months after I had been bonded. I had been contracted to find and assassinate a target. The easiest method was to infiltrate a ball the target was hosting and at some point during it, I would use my psionic powers to kill the man. It was a simple mission, or at least, it should have been a simple mission.

I dressed formally for the ball, dressing in a nice strapless dress that went down to my knees. I used my psionic powers to enhance my eyesight for the short time I would be at the ball so I would not need to wear my glasses. Having the ability to enter someone's mind and make them believe anything you wanted made it easy for me to infiltrate the ball.

I used the man's contacts to get myself introduced to him. From there, it wouldn't have been difficult to get influence the man away from everyone and finish the job. Unfortunately, it turns out the task was not so simple. While I had done a good job of infiltrating the ball, I had taken a few drinks of the punch that was being served. Of course, at a fancy ball for adults such as this one, the punch was spiked.

I had never had alcohol before and so did not understand my limits. I had gotten myself quite unsober by the time I finally met with the man. If there's one thing you don't want, it's a drunk psion. Our powers and minds leak easily when we're drunk, and so my telepathic influence slipped out to everyone at the ball. My disdain for the task I had to do spread throughout the ballroom, causing the other members to begin to hate.

What did they hate, you wonder? Well, each other really. Little things began to upset them and soon there was a brawl. I got caught up in it, of course, along with my target. When the chaos and fighting ended, I was lucky that the man had taken a liking to me and had shown concern for how I had been hurt in it all. I have the feeling it was my own feelings that were influencing him in that regard, as I was the only one he showed any care to.

Regardless of how it happened, though, the man had sent away all of the other party-goers and had kept me. He cared and nurtured me, and... well, I'm sure you can imagine what might happen between two people of opposite gender, especially when one is drunk and the other is being influenced by that drunk person.

It was the first time I had ever been with anyone in that way, and as the morning came and I finally became sober, I realized what had happened. I knew I would be in major trouble if I returned to Gaelira having failed my task, however. So, as we awoke and sat to eat that morning's breakfast, I reached out with my psychic power and forced his heart to beat harder and harder until it stopped.

To anyone, it would look as if it was a heart attack, and there was no way to prove it was anything but that. Even if someone could have proven otherwise, I could simply influence them to believe against it.

My first time being with someone followed up by my first killing. I was not happy with how things had gone, but I knew I had had no choice. Gaelira would have simply forced me to do it through the Bonds. I spent several days crying.

With our first assassination contract complete, it wasn't hard for Gaelira to find more contracts. For simpler tasks, she would send out lower rank members of the guild. But if it was something or someone important, she would send me. I spent those next few years continuing to find and kill people that she wanted dead.

To cope with the constant assassinations I was sent on, I began to allow myself things that brought me pleasure. Soon, pleasure and work melded together and most of the targets I was sent after to kill ended up becoming targets for my own pleasure. I wasn't proud of this by any means, but I used it to hide from the pain of what I was being forced to do.

I found that targets were easier to seduce if I wore less clothes, and so I began wearing less and less. Soon, it wasn't uncommon for me to wander the streets in underwear or even less. One of my favorite things to do was to dress in a skirt and jacket with nothing under either while the jacket sat open. It was just enough to normally cover anything people saw as indecent, but when the wind would blow, or I would shift in certain ways, my body became visible. Of course, this caused people to have strong, lustful thoughts that were easy for me to pick up on, and it was those people I preyed on.

I continued this until I was nineteen... until I met her...

"You're assignment this time is in the city of Varinia," Gaelira spoke to me. "The king of the beastials that live there is currently in poor health. You are to go there, infiltrate the castle, and remove the king and his family. Our guild has already infiltrated the city and we have some members in high places. They will ensure that Varinia comes under our control once the current monarchy is dead."

"I understand." I gave a bow and left.

Varinia wasn't far from our current headquarters in Evanna. In fact, it was just a few days travel to the north. I joined a caravan that was heading between cities and made my way there without incident.

As I arrived in Varinia, I knew the first thing I would need to do was learn about the place. As I wandered the streets, I would stop and talk to people, asking them a question or two about Varinia. A question or two was all I needed to force their minds to think about the city, and from there it was easy to extract what I needed from their heads.

It didn't take long before I knew all of the ins and outs of the city and many of its people. I even knew quite a bit about the Royal Family. Their king was Antonio Seaborn and the queen was named Eleanora. The two were both beastial in decent, specifically that of the okanimu decent. This meant that while they looked like humans, as most beastial do, they had ears and tails resembling that of a dog or a wolf. They also had a daughter, a girl close to my age by the name of Valerie.

According to the thoughts of many people, Valerie was a very powerful wizard. She had bested almost every beastial wizard in Varinia and was currently under the training of Kiyoko, one of the many kitsune chieftains. Still, she was a wizard, even if she was strong, I was a psion. That was what I thought, anyway.

I made my way towards the center of the city, where Tyrone Keep sat. It was an impressive castle with seven towers all in a circle around a central tower that stood even taller than them. I wondered if the seven towers had to do with the Arcane Seven. If you're not familiar with it, it is believed that arcane magic flows in such a way that if it is harnessed by seven people, it becomes its most powerful and most pure strength. Of course, that's the best I can tell you about it. I never studied magic much at all considering I didn't have the ability to use it.

As I approached the castle, I spoke with the guards and influenced them to allow me entry. I also took their knowledge of the castle so I would know everything I could about how to navigate through. While I didn't need to navigate unseen, the less people I had to use my abilities against the better, and so I utilized secret paths to the best of my ability to get through the castle.

It didn't take me long before I was at the throne room. The guards let me in without question due to my influence, and I was soon standing before the king and queen. I gave a bow and knelt before them. "Good King Antonia, Good Queen Eleanora, I am pleased to finally be able to make your acquaintances."

"And, who exactly are you?" Queen Eleanora asked. "The guards were not to allow anyone in. My husband is not well."

I smirked and stood to my feet. "Well, it's not hard for me to get wherever or whatever I want." I reached my psychic powers out to kill the king and queen when suddenly, my powers were brought to a halt. "W-what?"

That was when she, the most beautiful woman I would ever meet, stepped out from behind one of the throne room's pillars. It was Princess Valerie. She was dressed in a red dress that had two straps that went around her arms instead of over her shoulders. She had long brown hair that was tied into a ponytail and stunningly beautiful brown eyes. She was holding a tall staff with a glowing red gem on the top of it.

"So, I was right," Valerie spoke as she looked at me. "I wondered if someone from the Flaming Dirks would show up if rumors spread about my father's health being bad."

I lashed out with my psychic powers at Valerie, but they were simply deflected away. "H-how...?"

"There's been rumors that the Flaming Dirks were psions, so we protected ourselves."

"B-but only psions can block other psions!" I shouted. I reached my hand out and formed a dagger of psychic energy.

"You're right on that. That's why we have hired a psion to protect us."

Another woman stepped out from behind another pillar. She had two-toned eyes with one being green and one being blue. She had deep brown hair much like Valerie, but she was human, or so I thought.

"Stand down," the woman spoke as she held up her hand. I didn't know why, but her psychic energy felt completely overpowering. Just standing in her presence was like a skinny kid standing before a powerful, muscular man almost twice their height. All I could feel was an overpowering sense of awe and fear.

"I-I can't!" I wasn't going to let the fear get to me. If I turned away, Gaelira would just take control of me. If I was going to lose and die here, it was best that I did so under my own control. I threw my dagger, but it barely left my hand before it dissipated.

"You can't hurt me," the woman spoke. "I am considerably more powerful than you."

I growled. "I don't care! I've been sent here with a mission, and I'm going to complete it or die trying."

"That's up to you." I could feel her psychic energy flowing around me like a great many hands. They brushed against my skin, causing me to shiver as chills went through my body. "Oh? Is that so?" What? What had she seen? "I can remove that for you." The Bonds?

"There's no way!" I shouted out. "No one can remove them."

"Not any normal person, no." The woman smiled and I felt her psychic powers relax. "I'm a milesan, I'm not bound by the laws of magic or psionics that you are."

She was a milesan? But how was that possible? "Y-you're lying."

"You're a psion, you can see if I'm lying." The woman began to step towards me. "Go ahead, I'll open my mind to you. Take a look."

Was she really foolish enough to open herself up to me like this? I had to take the chance. I'd attack her from inside her own mind. I thrust my psychic energy out at her mind.

I was floating in a deep, dark void. There was nothing and yet everything around me. As I stared ahead into the void, I saw a beautiful path before me. I reached out to it and felt myself slip into the path. All of existence flowed around me as I walked through this strange path of intricate beauty. Then, I felt myself fall.

My eyes opened again and I stood in a large circular white platform. In the center of the platform stood a beautiful woman dressed all in white. Her hair was black as ebony and she had two large wings that were just as dark. Her eyes were closed and her hands rested upon her chest. "Hello, Child of the Stars," she spoke but her mouth did not move. "My name is Morrigan. I am known as the Raven Goddess by some, to others I am known as the Goddess of War and Fate. To you and your people, the Children of the Stars, I am known as the Guide of Spirits."

"Where... am I? What is this place?" I asked, but the voice was not my own, it was the woman's voice.

"This is the Spirit Stream. Your spirit has come here by one means or another. How exactly it happened, I cannot say, but you have come here to Aleithia, specifically to the world of Versumi."

I stared in confusion for a moment before I began to look around.

"You are what is known as a Child of the Stars or as the people of Versumi call you - a Milesan. You have been granted a chance to live whatever kind of life you so desire here in this world, and when you tire of this, you may continue on to wherever the stars will take you next."

"What do you mean?"

Morrigan smiled and raised her hand. She still had not opened her eyes in all of this. "The power of the Spirit Stream allows you to remake yourself however you see fit. You can take the form of whatever race you choose in the world and be whatever you want to be. All you need to do is step towards the light."

I turned and saw a light appear in her hand. It formed into a doorway and I felt drawn towards it. I stepped forward and passed through the doorway of light and all went dark. As I awoke, I stood in the center of Evanna. I looked down at myself, then saw the fountain in the center of the town. I quickly rushed over and peered into the waters to look at my reflection. There I was, just as I had imagined myself. I was the woman.

I fell backwards onto my butt. I had escaped her mind at last. She smiled at me. "See?"

I had no words with which to respond. I simply looked down at the ground.

The woman stepped over to me and knelt down next to me. She gently took my hand and smiled. "Would you like me to remove those bonds?"

I felt the Bonds begin to take control of me. My body locked up and I screamed in pain. I suddenly reached my hands out to grab at the woman's throat, but my hands couldn't move more than an inch in front of my face. The woman continued to smile as she touched my back. Suddenly, there was a burning sensation on my back, as if her hand was burning the Bonds out of my body. I screamed in pain, but soon the pain began to subside.

"There, you're free." The woman stood to her feet.

"Thank you..." I spoke. As I looked up at her, I could feel my face becoming wet with tears. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
After that incident, Varinia had become my new home. While I was free from the Bonds, I knew Gaelira would continue to send assassins after the Varinia Royal Family, especially since the rumors of King Antonio's health were not false. The king's health was deteriorating, and Gaelira would use any chance to strike out at Varinia to gain power.

Having knowledge of as much of the Flaming Dirks as I had, I was able to weed out many of Gaelira's henchman, but it seemed like for as many as we removed, that many took their place. I did not know why Gaelira was so intent on taking Varinia, but I knew it couldn't have been for a good reason.

I had worked very closely with the Royal Family. In fact, I had been hired as Valerie's personal psionic guard. This meant that I spent almost every waking minute with her. From the moment she awoke in the morning to the moment she lied down to rest, I stayed by her side. This also meant I got to know her very well.

Valerie was like most beastials. They often cared little for clothes or being dressed unless the need came. Because of this, much of her day inside of the castle was spent dressed in as little as possible. Some days, she would even walk around the castle completely naked. Whenever we left the castle, though, she would dress herself in some form of strapless or halter dress.

I suppose the carefree nature of Valerie began to get to me. While I had already become accustomed to wearing revealing attire, Valerie's disinterest in clothes made me start to feel the same way. I think the fact that she seemed to enjoy when I wore less made it even easier for me to become disinterested. Truthfully, I ended up even more disinterested in clothes than even Valerie was.

Unfortunately, the first few months that I worked as her guard were a challenge for me. Not only was Gaelira still aiming to bring Varinia under her grasp, but I had become an alcoholic during my time with the Bonds. Valerie felt that I would not be able to do my job correctly if I continued to drink the way I did. So, she did not allow me to drink.

The first couple of days were a struggle. I started to get angry at little things. Sometimes, Valerie would ask me what should have been a simple question and I would lash out in anger. I was lucky that I never lashed out with my psionic powers. Still, as the days continued, I felt as though I could no longer go on without a drink. Because of this, I manipulated one of the workers in the castle to secretly bring me drinks.

This worked at first. I got a drink every once in a while to keep myself off the edge, but the more I drank, the more I wanted more. Being psionic and able to manipulate anyone I wanted into doing my bidding didn't help my case either. It didn't take long before I had half the staff under my control and sneaking me drinks.

It didn't take long for Valerie to realize what I was doing. As I held a cup that secretly had alcohol in it, she waved her hand and forced the liquid out of my cup. This lead to a rather heated fight between the two of us as she used her magic to keep the alcohol away from me and I used my psionics to take it back.

When the fight had gone on long enough, Valerie snapped her fingers, teleporting the alcohol elsewhere. I grew angry with her and slammed my hands on the table. I screamed at her and allowed my psionics to flow into her mind. But that was as far as the fight went. She knew I would try to tap into her mind. She had taught herself to perform complex magical equations in her head to throw me off. She had learned how to defeat me.

Valerie began to watch me even closer after that. She would examine everything I ate and everything I drank. Being her personal guard and having to be by her every second of every minute made it difficult for me to find any other way to sneak anything by her. In the end, her personal life became my personal life, and while she allowed me some personal pleasures of my own, she was always nearby and present.I guess that interaction was one reason we became so close together. At first, I was just her guard, but as things progressed, I became her friend. By the time I had fully straightened myself out, we had started to become lovers.

When she first admitted her feelings for me, I was shocked. I had always assumed she was interested in men, but that wasn't true. In fact, she wasn't really interested in anyone, not in a more carnal way anyway. Romantically, she liked me, but beyond romance, she just wasn't interested or found any enjoyment in it. That's not to say that Valerie and I didn't try a few times, but the more we tried, the more she realized she just didn't want to do those sorts of things.

Valerie knew, though, that I was a more carnal person and that I had needs that she simply couldn't fulfill. For a time, we both considered if us being together was the right thing, and the stress of her father's deteriorating health only made it harder for her. If he passed away, that would leave no one to take his throne as Valerie had no brothers. With no heir, Varinia would have no leader.

Valerie and I talked often on this matter. She had no interest in marrying a man, but if she did not, then who would take the throne? The king's brother had sons, but most of them had been wed to the princesses of other kingdoms, leaving only his oldest son as his own heir. As King Antonio's health continued to deteriorate, the very real fact that Valerie would have to wed to give her father an heir became even more clear.

It had been a year since I had been freed from the Bonds. King Antonio's health was growing even more grave and Gaelira had become even more aggressive with her attempts to take Varinia. She had stopped using psions in her attempts to make the king's death appear to be from natural causes. Instead, she had enlisted the aid of a tribe of goliaths that were known for being aggressive and war-like. They were known as the Vykyn.

While goliaths were not nearly as strong or powerful as their giant ancestors, they were stronger and more powerful than a human. While beastials had animalistic traits, they were at their core still just humans. The Vykyn fought with vigor and intellect. They never once backed down or surrendered, fighting until the last man fell. Even if a battle could not be won, they fought anyway. For everyone one of them we brought down, they brought down three of us. Our resources and manpower would dwindle long before theirs if the fighting continued.

I offered to return to Gaelira, to force her to put a stop to the attacks, but Valerie refused. She would not allow me to return as she feared that Gaelira would simply bond me once more, and we no longer had the help of the woman that had freed me. She had returned to the Spirit Stream and had not been seen in many months.

Valerie knew now that she had only two options. She either had to surrender Varinia to Gaelira or she would have to wed to the prince of another kingdom to secure an alliance that could fight against the Vykyn. Valerie's father would not live more than a few months longer at most, she had to decide.

And so, Valerie made the only real choice she could. She journeyed to the neighboring kingdom of Daimondo and met with their king. The King of Daimondo was known as Augustus Laevinus and of his children were Caius and Janakar. Caius was his eldest son and heir to the throne. Caius was already engaged and as such Valerie was arranged to wed Janakar.

I remember the day when Valerie and I stood at the chapel of Varinia. She was dressed now in a strapless white wedding dress with a veil that covered much of her face. She shook as I held her, trying to comfort her. She did not love Janakar, she did not wish to wed Janakar, but she simply had no choice.

As we said farewell, the organ began to play. I could see Janakar standing proudly at the altar. King Antonio, in his sickly state, took Valerie's hand and began to walk her towards the altar. I could hear her mind's voice crying and begging for a way out, that something or someone could put a stop to what was about to come. Still, on the outside, she had a brave face and did not allow her internal thoughts to show.

Valerie stopped at the altar and King Antonio sat down on a pew in the front row next to his wife. The priest began to speak. "We are gathered here today to witness the joining of Princess Valerie to Prince Janakar Laevinus and to witness the creation of a holy alliance between their two kingdoms."

I don't know why I did it at that moment, but I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't let this happen. I loved Valerie, and Valerie loved me. I reached out my mind and took hold of one of the chandeliers that hung above. I ripped it off the chains that held it up and brought it crashing down into the middle of the chapel. The guests screamed as they rushed to dodge out of the way of the chandelier.

The priest stared in wonder and confusion as Valerie and Janakar turned to look out at the chandelier that had fallen.

"It's a curse!" one guest shouted.

"The gods have cursed this wedding!" another shouted.

"Everyone, please, relax," Janakar called out. "I'm certain there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this."

Valerie turned and looked at me. I could hear her thoughts, and she knew I could. "What are you doing?!" she shouted at me in her mind.

"I-I can't... I just can't let him take you from me," I responded as I began to walk forward. "I love you, and I would do anything to keep you."

"I love you, too, but this is for the good of my people! If I don't do this..."

"Fuck that!" I shouted. I stopped in the middle of the chapel, right in front of the chandelier. I reached my hand out and used my psionic energy to pull Valerie towards me.

"A psion?!" Janakar shouted.

"My name is Keira. I am the one which Valerie truly loves, and I love her!"

"Fiend!" Janakar hissed. He rose his hand and formed a spear of ice in the air. He sent it flying towards me, but magic is powerless against psionics. I froze the spear in mid-air and spun it around.

I sent the spear back at Janakar.

The spear was just supposed to have struck him in the side. It would have hurt him, but it wouldn't have done any permanent damage to him. I didn't want to kill him. I didn't want to kill anyone. I just wanted to stay with Valerie.

Caius dropped to his knees, the spear having embedded itself in his chest. He slumped to the ground and everyone looked on in horror at what I had done.

I hadn't meant to... That wasn't supposed to happen...

I turned to flee, but I felt Valerie grab my arm. Despite being a wizard, she had always been so much stronger than me. I could only guess it was her animal half that was the reason.

I tried to pull myself away from her, but Valerie pulled me close and wrapped her arms around me. Both of us knew what had happened, and both of us knew what had to happen next. I surrendered myself to her.

As I turned to look at Valerie, I noticed the tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry... I just couldn't let you go..."

"I can't let you go either." Those words shocked me. I had no time to contemplate what they could mean before Valerie turned back to Janakar. "I'm sorry, I couldn't go through with this. I told Keira what to do, I made her act."

"Valerie, what-"

Valerie elbowed me in the gut. "Father, Mother... I'm sorry... I wanted to save our kingdom... I wanted to save all of you... But I just can't!" There was a sudden flash of light and Valerie and I were no longer in the chapel. She had teleported us halfway across Varinia.

"I don't understand," I spoke up.

"I love you, Keira, and nothing can change that." Valerie grabbed her wedding dress and tore it off. She tossed it to the ground and stomped her foot on it. "Neither of us can go back now. Run away with me, Keira."

I smiled and knelt down to one knee. "My lady, for you, I would go anywhere and do anything."

"Then marry me."

"Of course." I stood to my feet and we embraced. It was a short embrace, though, as we knew we would not have long before they began to search for us. Valerie summoned her staff and carried us off with her magic.

It's been five years since that day. Janakar became King of Daimondo and not even a week into his rule, a war erupted across most of Jinosa. The gnomes had come from deep underground and brought with them powerful constructs. They demanded the continent of Jinosa to be given to them, but we refused.

The war lasted about a year before the gnomes blew themselves up with some all-powerful weapon that was supposed to win them the war. Now, only a few gnomes remain and they have gone into hiding. I doubt they'll be a problem any time soon since Janakar has formed the Council of Magic and now controls much of their technology.

Valerie and I fled to the east, away from Jinosa. There is a small island known as the Spirit Isle. Supposedly, the three kingdoms that live on the island are held in unity by the powerful spirits that live on the island. When the Gnome War nearly threatened the island, the spirits themselves rose up and destroyed the gnomes who dared to strike at us.

As for Varinia, the city was conquered by the Vykyn who went back on their pact with Gaelira the moment they controlled the city. Valerie thinks regularly of what Varinia and its people must be going through under the control of the Vykyn, but there's simply nothing we can do. Even if we could save Varinia, Valerie and I would likely be executed because of what we did.

And so, the two of us live here on the Spirit Isle, namely in the town of Samara. It's a peaceful place where monks come to gather and train in one of the biggest monasteries on all of Versumi. As for Valerie and I specifically, well, we got married. We even want to have children, so I've been trying to get pregnant for almost a year now. I worry that I simply can't have children. Valerie doesn't want to go through the pains of pregnancy and birth either.

But, maybe it's a good thing I haven't succeeded on getting pregnant. There's talk of another war brewing over on Jinosa, one to exterminate psions. If this war does come, no matter what I've done in the past, I will have to fight. I won't let people like me come to anymore harm. If it's a war against psions that Jinosa wants, then we will fight back and we will win.


End file.
